The Bab and the Babi Community of Iran

Contents

Biographies

Acknowledgments

A Note on Transliteration

Map

Preface

1 The Bab: A Sun in a Night Not Followed by Dawn

Fereydun Vahman

The Bab Discontinues his Formal Education and Begins his Mercantile Work

Epiphany, Piety, and Intuition

The Bab’s Journey to the Sacred Shrine Cities of ʻIraq

The Bab’s Return to Shiraz and Marriage

The Declaration of the Bab’s Cause: The Birth of a New Religion

After the Declaration of the Bab’s Cause

Mulla ʻAli Bastami

The Bab’s Eventful Journey to Mecca

The Bab’s Return from Pilgrimage and the Events of Shiraz

The Bab in Isfahan

From Isfahan to Azarbaijan

The Trial of Tabriz

The Return to Chihriq Prison

The Execution of the Bab in Tabriz

Bibliography

2 The Worldview of the Báb: The Reconstruction of Religion and Society

Nader Saiedi

Reconstruction of the Idea of Religion: Dialectical Logic and Historical Consciousness

Reconstruction of the Idea of the Human Being and Human Identity

Rationalism and Humanism

Equality of the Believers and Canceling of the Authority of the Clerics

Centrality of the Word and the Rejection of Miracles

Reconstruction of Heaven, Hell, and the Day of Resurrection

Reconstruction of the Concept of the Occultation and Return of the Imam

Equal Rights, Social Justice, and Ethics

Station of Women, Rejection of Patriarchy

The Ethical Maxim: For the Sake of God

Culture of Affirmation

Development and Modernization: Perfection and Refinement

Conclusion

Bibliography

3 The Shaping of the Babi Community: Merchants, Artisans, and Others

Abbas Amanat

The Changing Economy

The Babi Merchants

The Babi Artisans

Converts from the Government Ranks

The Babi Community: An Assessment

Selected Bibliography

4 From a Primal Point to an Archetypal Book: Literary Trajectories through Select Writings of the Bab (1819–50)

Stephen N. Lambden

The Writings of the Bab, Some Preliminary Observations

Bayan/Mubin (Crystal Clear) yet Abstruse, Bewilderingly Abstruse (sa‘b mustasa‘b): Exegetical Clarity and Esoteric Depth in the Writings of the Bab

The Shahada (Testimony of Faith) and its Alphabetical Mysteries

Esoterica, the Abstruse, Sciences of the Unseen (‘ulūm al-ghayb)

The Style, Grammar, and Syntax of the Bab

Personal Letters, Scriptural Tablets (Lawh, pl. Alwah)

Letters or Scriptural Tablets

The Genesis of the New Shari‘a (Laws), the Khasa’il-i Sab‘a (mid. 1845)

The All-Comprehensive Bayan (Exposition) of the Bab

The Five Modes of Revelation

Devotional Writings of the Bab

Tafsir Sūrat al-Hamd (Praise) or al-Fatiha (The Opening, Q. 1)

We indeed proffered thee al-Kawthar (The Abundance).

Hadith Commentary

Commentaries on Hadith Texts by the Bab

Sūrat al-Ridwan

Khutbas, Literary Orations

The Khutba al-Jidda (Literary Oration Nigh Jeddah)

The Khutba on ‘ilm al-huruf (On the Science of the Letters)

Select Treatises (Risala, pl. Rasa’il), Epistles (Ṣahifa, pl. Ṣuhuf) and Other Scriptural Communications

The Risala fi’l-nubuwwa al-khassa (A Treatise on the Specific Prophethood of Muhammad)

Epistles, Treatises, Booklets (Ṣahifa, pl. Ṣuhuf)

The Persian Dala’il-i sab‘a (Seven Proofs)

The Arabic al-dala’il al-sab‘a (Seven Proofs)

Kitab al-asma’/Kull shay’ (The Book of the Divine Names, the All Things)

Kitab-i panj sha‘n (The Book expressive of Five Modes of Revelation)

The (Lawhi) Haykal aldin (Temple of Religion) (1266/early–mid-1850)

The Late Messianism of the Bab

The Wasiyyat-nama (Will and Testament) Attributed to the Bab

Concluding Summary Note

Bibliography

5 Interpretation as Revelation: The Qur’án Commentary of the Báb, Sayyid ‘Alí Muḥammad Shírází (1819–50)

Todd Lawson

Life of the Báb

The Shaykhí School

Shaykhí Teachings

Tafsír Works

Tafsír súrat al-baqara

Tafsír súrat Yúsuf

Conclusions

Bibliography

6 The Social Basis of the Bābī Upheavals in Iran (1848–53): A Preliminary Analysis

Moojan Momen

Introduction

The Shaykh Ṭabarsī Upheaval: 1848–49

Total Number of Bābīs at Shaykh Ṭabarsī

Rural/Urban Origin of Bābī Participants at Shaykh Ṭabarsī

The Nayrīz Upheavals of 1850 and 1853

Occupations of Bābī Participants in the Two Nayrīz Upheavals

Origins of Participants at the Two Nayrīz Upheavals

Total Numbers of Bābī Participants at the Two Nayrīz Upheavals

The Zanjān Upheaval: 1850–51

Occupations of Bābī Participants at Zanjān

Origins of Bābī Participants at Zanjān

Total Numbers of Bābī Participants at Zanjān

The Tehran Episodes of 1850 and 1852

The Seven Martyrs of Tehran, 1850

The Tehran Executions of 1852

Occupations of the Bābīs Executed in Tehran in 1852

Conclusions

A Comparative Analysis

The Role of Women

Other Social Groups

The Social Basis of Babism

7 The Babi–State Conflicts of 1848–50

Siyamak Zabihi-Moghaddam

Babi Clashes with the State: Neither Social Protest nor Offensive Holy War

Review of the Primary Sources of the Babi Upheavals

An Outline of the Conflict at Shaykh Tabarsi, September 1848–May 1849

The Objectives of the Babis at Shaykh Tabarsi

The Calm between Storms: May 1849–May 1850

The Nayriz Conflict of May–June 1850

An Analysis of the Objectives of Vahid and the Babis in Nayriz

Hujjat and the ‘Ulama’ of Zanjan

The Zanjan Episode of May 1850–January 1851

An Analysis of the Objectives of Hujjat and the Zanjani Babis

Conclusion

Bibliography

8 From Babi Movement to the BahA’I Faith: Some Observations About the Evolution of a New Religion

Armin Eschraghi

Some General Observations on the Bab’s Sacred Law

Messianism in the Bab’s Writings

The Later Development of the Babi Movement

Baha’u’llah After the Bab’s Martyrdom

Babi Messianism and the Question of Leadership

Some General Observations on Baha’u’llah’s Sacred Law

Some Further Observations on the Baha’i Faith’s Evolution from the Babi Movement

Messianism

Ritual Impurity (najasah)

Holy War and Religious Legitimization of Violence

Conclusion

Bibliography

9 The hand of God is not chained up: Notes on Two Salient Themes in the Prose Writings of Ṭáhirih Qurratu’l-‘Ayn

Omid Ghaemmaghami

Introduction

Progressive Revelation

Love, Friendship, and Forbearance

Bibliography

10 Babi-Baha’i Books and Believers in E. G. Browne’s A Year Amongst the Persians

Sholeh A. Quinn

Introduction

Terminology and Identifications

Isfahan

Shiraz

Books in Shiraz

Reading in Shiraz

Yazd

Kirman

Conclusion

The Texts Browne Encountered in Iran

Bibliography

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Biographies

Abbas Amanat is William Graham Sumner Professor of History at Yale University. He is also the director of the Yale Program in Iranian Studies. His latest publications are: Iran: A Modern History (Yale University Press, 2017); The Persianate World: Rethinking a Shared Space (with Assef Ashraf, Brill, 2018); and, in Persian, Az Tehran ta ʻAkka, Babiyan va Baha’iyan dar Asnad-e Douran-e Qajar (with Fereydun Vahman, Ashkar Press, 2016).

His other publications are: Resurrection and Renewal: The Making of the Babi Movement in Iran, 1844–1850 (Cornell University Press, 1989); Pivot of the Universe: Nasir al-Din Shah Qajar and the Iranian Monarchy, 1831–1896 (University of California Press, 1997); and Apocalyptic Islam and Iranian Shi’ism (I.B. Tauris, 2005). See further: https://history.yale.edu/people/abbas-amanat

.

Armin Eschraghi is Lecturer in Islamic Studies at Goethe University Frankfurt (Germany) and the Sankt Georgen Divinity School. He is the author of a monograph on Shaykhism and the Bab’s early writings (Frühe Shaykhi- und Babi-Theologie. Die Darlegung der Beweise für Muhammads besonderes Prophetentum. Einleitung, Edition und Erläuterungen. Brill: Leiden 2004) and of a translation and extensive commentary on Baha’u’llah’s epistle to the influential Muslim cleric Aqa Najafi Isfahani (Baha’u’llah. Brief an den Sohn des Wolfes, Aus dem Persischen und Arabischen übersetzt und herausgegeben, Suhrkamp/Insel: Berlin 2010). He has also authored several research articles on the writings and early history of the Babi and Baha’i faiths and their relationship to Islam in general and Shiʿism in particular.

Omid Ghaemmaghami is Associate Professor of Arabic and Near Eastern Studies and Director of the Middle East and North Africa studies program at the State University of New York in Binghamton. He holds a PhD in Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies from the University of Toronto, an MA in Islamic and Near Eastern Studies from Washington University in St. Louis, and certificates from the Dalalah Institute in Damascus and the American University in Cairo. He has taught and lectured on Arabic and Islamic Studies at universities and academic institutions in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Egypt, and is the author of the forthcoming book Encounters with the Hidden Imam in Early and Pre-Modern Twelver Shīʿī Islam (https://brill.com/view/title/34465?lang=en

).

Stephen N. Lambden received his PhD in Religious Studies from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne in 2002 where he submitted a thesis about Islamo-biblica (Isra’iliyyat, Israelitica) and the emergence of the Babi-Baha’i Interpretation of the Bible. He specializes in Abrahamic religious texts and Semitic languages (Hebrew, Arabic, etc.) and has lectured in Babi-Baha’i Studies at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne and elsewhere. His work exhibits a special interest in the Bible and the Qur’an and their relationship to Babi and Baha’i Arabic and Persian primary scriptural texts and doctrinal teachings. Among his many publications are contributions to the Encyclopædia Iranica, Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, Studies in the Babi and Baha’i Religions (Kalimat Press series), and several other journals and books. He also contributed the Islam chapter for the Blackwell Companion to the Bible and Culture (Oxford, 2006). He is currently a Research Scholar at the University of California, Merced. Many of his papers and research notes are found on his personal website: http://hurqalya.ucmerced.edu

.

Todd Lawson (PhD, McGill University 1987) is Emeritus Professor of Islamic Thought at the University of Toronto where he joined the Department of Middle East and Islamic Studies in 1988. There, he taught undergraduate and graduate students the Qur’an, Islamic theology, philosophy, and mystical thought. More recently, he taught courses and supervised graduate work on the dynamics between the literary and religious dimensions of Islamic discourses and texts. He has published widely on Qur’an commentary (tafsir), Shiʿi mystical and messianic thought, and the writings of the Bab in the context of the general religio-mystical milieu of his time. His two most recent books are The Quran, Epic and Apocalypse (Oneworld, 2017) a study of the Qur’an as literature, and Tafsir as Mystical Experience: Intimacy and Ecstasy in Quran Commentary (Brill, 2019) on the first major exegetical composition by the Bab (the Tafsīr sūrat al-baqara). His study of the Bab’s annunciatory Qur’an commentary on the Surah of Joseph (Qur’an 12), Gnostic Apocalypse, was published by Routledge in 2012. Also, in 2012, he edited, with Omid Ghaemmaghami, a collection of scholarly studies on the writings of the Bab entitled A Most Noble Pattern (George Ronald, Oxford). He also guest edited a special Baha’i issue of the Journal of Religious History (vol. 36, no. 4, December 2012), gathering articles by numerous academics on a variety of topics to do with the rise and development of the Baha’i faith. He lives in Montreal with his wife Barbara.

Moojan Momen is an independent scholar who was born in Iran but raised and educated in England, attending the University of Cambridge. He has a special interest in the study of the Baha’i faith and Shi‘i Islam, both from the viewpoint of their history and their doctrines. In recent years, his interests have extended to the study of the phenomenon of religion. His principal publications in these fields include An Introduction to Shi‘i Islam (Yale University Press, 1985); The Bábí and Bahá’í Religions 1844–1944: Some Contemporary Western Accounts (George Ronald, Oxford, 1982); The Phenomenon of Religion (Oneworld, Oxford, 1999, republished as Understanding Religion, 2008); and The Baha’i Communities of Iran, 1851–1921: Volume 1: The North of Iran (George Ronald, Oxford, 2015). He has contributed articles to encyclopedias such as the Encyclopædia Iranica and the Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World as well as papers to academic journals such as the International Journal of Middle East Studies, Past and Present, Iran, Iranian Studies, Journal of Genocide Research, and Religion. He is a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society.

Sholeh A. Quinn is Associate Professor of History at the University of California, Merced. She received her PhD from the University of Chicago in 1993. Her research focuses on the history of early modern Iran. She is the author of Historical Writing during the Reign of Shah ‘Abbas: Ideology, Imitation, and Legitimacy in Safavid Chronicles (2000), Shah ‘Abbas: the King Who Refashioned Iran (2015), and co-editor of History and Historiography of Post-Mongol Central Asia and the Middle East: Studies in Honor of John E. Woods (2006). She is currently completing a book on Persian historical writing across the Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal empires.

Nader Saiedi is Professor of Baha’i studies at UCLA. He was born in Tehran, Iran. He holds a Master’s degree in Economics from Pahlavi University in Shiraz and a PhD in Sociology from the University of Wisconsin. For over twenty-five years he was Professor of Sociology at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota. In 2013, he became the Taslimi Foundation Adjunct Professor of Baha’i History and Religion in Iran at UCLA. His main interests include Babi and Baha’i studies, social theory, Iranian studies, and peace studies. Among his published books are The Birth of Social Theory (1993), Logos and Civilization (2000), and Gate of the Heart (2008).

Fereydun Vahman is Professor Emeritus at Copenhagen University and former Iranian Studies Fellow at Yale University with more than forty years of teaching and research in old Iranian religions and languages. He is the author of quite a number of books and articles in several languages. His publications include: The Iranian ‘Divina Commedia’ Ardāy Virāz Nāmak (Curzon Press, 1983, repr. Routledge, 2017); West Iranian Dialect Materials (with Garnik Asatrian, 4 vols, Copenhagen, 1987–2002); Acta Iranica 28 (ed. with W. Sundermann and J. Duehesne-Guillemin, Brill, 1988); The Religious Texts in Iranian Languages (ed. with Claus Pedersen, Royal Danish Academy, 2007); 175 Years of Persecution: A History of the Babis & Baha’is of Iran (Oneworld, 2019). In Danish: Dansk-Persisk Ordbog (Special-pædagogisk forlag, 1986, 12th print 2012); Persisk-Dansk Ordbog (Gyldendal, 1998). In Persian: Diyanat-e Zartushti (Bonyad-e Farhang-e Iran, 1348 Sh./1969); Salman-e Savaji’s Jamshid va Khorshid (B.T.N.K, 1348 Sh./1969); Farhang-e mardom-e Kerman (Bonyad-e Farhang-e Iran, 1353 Sh./1974); Baha’iyan va Iran (Horizonte Publications, 1986); Kasravi va ketab-e Baha’igari-ye ou (Frankfurt, 2007); Yeksad-o shast sal mobarezeh ba ’a’in-e Baha’i (Baran, 2011); Az Tehran ta ʻAkka, Babiyan va Baha’iyan dar Asnad-e qajar (with Abbas Amanat, Ashkar Press, 2016); Bab va Jameʽe-ye Babi-ye Iran. Yadnameh-ye devistomin salgard-e mild- Bab 1819–1920 (ed., Baran, 2020). He is the editor of the series devoted to Religion and Society in Iran; so far eight books have been appeared in the series, which is published by Baran in Sweden. Professor Vahman is also co-founder and President of the Danish-Iranian Society.

Siyamak Zabihi-Moghaddam is an independent scholar who holds a PhD in Middle Eastern History from the University of Haifa. His articles have appeared in the Journal of Women’s History, Journal of Religious History, Contemporary Review of the Middle East, and Iranian Studies. In addition, he has edited a volume of Persian primary sources on the 1903 massacre of Baha’is (Bahá’í-Verlag, 2016).

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Acknowledgments

This volume is the English version of the Persian book of the same title, which was published on the bicentenary of the birth of the Persian prophet Sayyid ʻAli-Muhammad Shirazi, the Bab (1819–50). I owe the publication of this book first and foremost to the colleagues and scholars who enriched this volume with their contributions. I am also indebted to Stephen Lambden and Sholeh Quinn for their constant support and encouragement during the preparation of this work. My thanks also go to Adib Masumian for translating the first chapter of this book from Persian into English. Finally, I would like to extend my thanks to Novin Doostdar of Oneworld Publications and to Jonathan Bentley-Smith for supervising the final editing of this edition.

Fereydun Vahman

University of Copenhagen, Denmark

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A Note on Transliteration

The editor has respected the preferred transliteration style of each contributor to this volume.

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Preface

Fereydun Vahman

This volume was first published in Persian on the occasion of the bicentenary of the birth of Sayyid ʻAli-Muhammad Shirazi on 20 October 1819. Known to history, by both supporters and opponents, as the Bab, an Arabic word meaning door or gate, he began his brief ministry on the evening of 22 May 1844, and it ended with his public execution by firing squad in Tabriz on 9 July 1850. At the young age of twenty-five, the Bab had declared himself a messenger of God, announcing the beginning of a new age and a new religious order. During the course of the Bab’s short mission, he attracted thousands of followers. While some characterized this movement as a seditious uprising, others attributed its popularity to his compelling spiritual charisma and radically new approach to the major religious themes of the time, which he conveyed through thousands of pages of original writings in both Persian and Arabic. His life coincided with an intense period of messianic expectation in Shiʿi Islam, anticipating the promised return of the Hidden Twelfth Imam after a prolonged period of occultation. Historians of the Qajar era describe the brief but tumultuous ministry of the Bab as a revolutionary and heroic period, in which a significant proportion of Iranians were seeking religious renewal and social transformation.

It is remarkable that the name and message of the Bab spread with such astonishing speed throughout nineteenth-century Iran. This was a time when even basic travel and rudimentary communication, such as post and telegraph, were virtually nonexistent for the masses. Factors such as the prevailing economic crisis, the corruption and cruelty of the Qajar government, and people’s despondence over the corruption and hypocrisy among the Shiʿi clergy are among the reasons attributed by scholars to the widespread attraction to the Bab’s religion during this period. They argue that, under such circumstances, many of those seeking change and hope turned to him, especially since his messianic claim fulfilled their religious expectation of the coming of the promised one. Beyond the tyranny and corruption of nineteenth-century Iran, this belief in his spiritual station is crucial to understanding the large-scale following of the Bab. The decline of the Iranian state was certainly not a new phenomenon. Furthermore, the Bab did not present a specific policy for resolving the nation’s profound problems. Even as a matter of religious belief, his messianic claims were inconsistent with the expectations of the Shiʿi faithful, who expected the promised one to arrive with a sword of revenge to kill infidels and oppressors. On the contrary, the Bab rejected violence, and prohibited his followers from spreading his religion through means other than reasoning and persuasion. He even considered the mere causing of grief as a sin. The vast difference between his message of religious renewal and the messianic expectations propagated by orthodox religious schools and clerical circles is all the more remarkable because many of the Bab’s early followers were religious scholars and Islamic jurists.

It would seem that the speed with which the Bab’s message spread should primarily be attributed to what has been described in various sources as his unique personality, genius, and charisma. Above all, his ability to inspire people was the result of his certainty that he was responding to a divine calling and an inexorable mission that was destined to be victorious, that his penetrative word came from a heavenly source, and that no power on earth could stop the progress of his divine religion. The view that his widespread and sudden influence was derived primarily from these factors, rather than frustration with material conditions, might seem irrational if belief in notions of destiny and divine power are considered irrelevant to historical analysis. But this understanding of ultimate triumph in the face of violent persecution and overwhelming odds was the defining characteristic of the Bab’s teachings. It is what moved the masses who followed him, even if the price was their death through genocidal pogroms at the hands of both the government and clergy.

On the first evening of the proclamation of his divine mission, the Bab wrote the first chapter of the highly innovative Qayyum al-asma in the presence of his first follower, Mulla Husayn Bushru’i. In that treatise, he summoned rulers, kings, religious leaders, and people of both the East and West to respond to his message. He introduced himself unequivocally as a recipient of divine inspiration and the promised one of all ages. His message, however, was contrary to the traditional Shiʿi understanding of the appearance of the promised Mahdi. The orthodox belief was that he must come to confirm Islam and renew the Muhammadan ethos, yet the Bab announced a new religious dispensation. He understood the coming of each historic messenger as the resurrection day for their respective time, the dawn of a new age. He presented the Babi religion as a New Creation, or khalq-e badiʻ, which God has decreed for all the peoples of the world on this most recent Resurrection Day—a new order with new teachings and laws suitable for an unprecedented period of history.

In shaping this drama, the element of expectation (intizár) shared by almost all religious persuasions played an important role. It is a Shiʿi belief that when the first Imam, ‘Ali, was prevented from succeeding the Prophet Muhammad, a great catastrophe took place in the Islamic world which would one day be vindicated. The death of the eleventh Imam and the disappearance of his son, the twelfth Imam, in 260 AH (874 AD)—both victims of this usurpation—caused the Shiʿi faithful to seek solace and hope in the belief that the Hidden Imam would one day reappear from a period of occultation. This return would vindicate the collective suffering and expectation of the Shiʿi, and usher in an era of justice that would end all oppression. This eschatological tradition is attributed to the Prophet Muhammad from a narrative probably recorded in the early days of the expectation period. This hadith states that: Even if only one day remains for the life of the world, God will prolong that day until a man from my descent will arise and fill the world with justice and fairness, as it is now full of oppression and injustice. During this period, the number of Shiʿi traditions concerning the advent of the promised one started to increase and mingled with pre-Islamic Zoroastrian beliefs about the appearance of Saoshyant, the messianic figure of the Zoroastrians, which had remained in the shared memory of the Iranians for many centuries before the appearance of Islam. The belief is that with his coming, the dead will be resurrected and falsehood will disappear from the world. This is also similar to the Jewish expectation, described in the book of Daniel (two centuries before the birth of Christ), about the coming of Mashiah [משיח] (Messiah), as well as the Christian belief in the return (Parousia) or second coming of Christ descending from the sky. The clear reference in the Qur’an to the Day of Resurrection, the raising of the dead from the grave, the explanations of heaven and hell, and so on lent weight to the truth of these traditions.

The incredible and far-fetched conditions associated with the advent of the promised one rendered the actual occurrence of such an event physically impossible. Nonetheless, it was central to the teachings of Shiʿi clerics, though it was subject to a paradox. On the one hand, such beliefs enflamed the enthusiasm of the believers for the coming of the promised Qa’im or Mahdi, while on the other hand they suppressed and suffocated any movement that might be deemed insurrectionary in fulfilment of that same promise. The disparaging of Babi and Baha’i beliefs as blasphemous and heretical is perhaps explained by orthodoxy and fanaticism, but it may also be attributable to the fact that with the fulfilment of the twelfth Imam’s return, the Shiʿi clergy lose the primary justification for their religious authority, which is exercised in the absence of the promised Mahdi. The behavior of the Islamic Republic of Iran is an obvious example of this theocratic contradiction, branding the Baha’is as heretics deserving death. Yet many of the early Babis were deeply learned religious scholars, among the very same ‘ulama that repressed this threatening theology. People from all walks of life who flocked to the Babi religion understood their acceptance of the Bab’s claims as the ultimate realization of their belief in Shiʿi Islam. They also considered the sacrifice of their lives for the Babi cause as analogous to the martyrs of Islam, especially the Shiʿi who were killed in Karbala (10 Moharram 61 AH/10 October 680 AD.)

It is remarkable that, even today, Shiʿi intellectuals who are concerned with the decline of Islam and its apparent anachronism in modern times are not prepared to pay the least attention to this significant Iranian religious movement, although its message of religious renewal responds exactly to these concerns. It may well be argued that the revelations of the Bab and Baha’u’llah were the greatest revolutionary and religious movements in the modern history of Iran. They reflect the vitality and capacity of contemporary Iran to produce significant religious and social change, as well as sublime beliefs that can attract millions of people around the world, as demonstrated by the vast expansion of the Baha’i faith.

Two centuries from the birth of the Bab in 1819, we present this collection—the result of scholarly research by a group of Iranian and non-Iranian academics—as a gift to thoughtful people everywhere who seek knowledge of this extraordinary history.

Fereydun Vahman

Copenhagen

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1

The Bab

A Sun in a Night Not Followed by Dawn

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Fereydun Vahman

¹

On 9 July 1850, before a densely packed and clamoring crowd that had gathered on the rooftops of the barracks of Tabriz, Sayyid ʻAli-Muhammad Shirazi,²

known as the Bab—a youth of thirty-one who had claimed to be the Qaʼim and had brought a new religion—was executed by firing squad. The hostility of the Bab’s enemies was such that, rather than return his body to his family, they threw it into a moat on the outskirts of the city so that wild animals might feed on it. This may well have been the first death by firing squad that was carried out in Persian history. This prophet of Shiraz was put to death at a time when his nascent faith had thrown people throughout Persia into a state of excitement. The execution of the Bab set in motion a series of events that would be just as astonishing, bloody, and ruthless as his own death had been.

In stark contrast to the frenzied upheavals which the manner of his life and the nature of his claims incited among the people of Persia, and the profound grief and horror that seized his family and his followers as a result of his death, the birth of the Bab in a calm and peaceful spot in Shiraz—the upper chamber of the home of Mirza Sayyid ʻAli, his mother’s uncle—brought abundant joy to his family. The first child of the Bab’s parents had died just a few days after birth. In accordance with the prevailing custom, when his mother began to go into labor, she was taken to the home of Mirza Sayyid ʻAli, so that this newborn might live³

—and it was this same newborn who would later bring to humanity such novel concepts that they inaugurated a new chapter not only in the annals of Persian history, but also in the history of the world’s religions.

Sayyid ʻAli-Muhammad was born on 20 October 1819 to a family of reputable merchants of Shiraz. His father, Sayyid Muhammad-Reza, had a shop in the bazaar of Shiraz. The genealogy of the Bab indicates that six generations of his paternal ancestors were all Sayyids of Shiraz, some of whom also ranked among the celebrated clerics of that city.⁴

The mother of the Bab, Fatimih Bagum, came from a family of renowned merchants of Shiraz. Both her paternal ancestors and her brothers, the maternal uncles of the Bab, were all Sayyids. Hers was a respected family that enjoyed wealth and means. Among her brothers, most of whom would later become Babis and even Bahaʼis, were Haji Mirza Sayyid Muhammad (known as Khal-i Akbar in Bahaʼi literature), Haji Sayyid ʻAli (Khal-i Aʻzam), and Haji Mirza Hasan-ʻAli (Khal-i Asghar). To this list of the Bab’s maternal relatives must also be added Mirza Sayyid ʻAli, the paternal uncle of the Bab’s mother, in whose home he was born, and whose daughter, Khadijih Bagum, he would later marry. All these men were engaged in commercial enterprise, both in Persia and beyond, and they each operated their own businesses from the various cities of the country.⁵

The family of the Bab had a residence in Murgh-Mahalleh, one of the better districts of Shiraz where the reputable merchants of the city lived. The traditional makeup of communities in Persian cities was based on a very close relationship between the local bazaars and mosques, and this relationship took on a particularly religious form in the district of Murgh-Mahalleh. Abbas Amanat makes reference to the conflicts between the Haydari and Niʻmati groups, which in those days had become rampant between the districts of Shiraz.⁶

In order to assert their own dominance, and also that of their supporters, the majority of the ruffians in every district would brawl with their opposing groups. The reputable merchants and families typically kept their distance from such conflicts, unprepared as they were to risk sacrificing their fame and wealth by openly associating with either side. Instead, these merchants and families worked to support one another; they formed guilds both as a show of solidarity and also as a means of ensuring their commercial success.

At a young age, the Bab lost his father, who died when he was forty-nine.⁷

Following the death of her husband, and in accordance with the instructions he had left in his will, the Bab’s mother went with her young child to live in the home of her brother, Haji Sayyid ʻAli (Khal-i Aʻzam). From then on, Sayyid ʻAli-Muhammad, the Bab, remained in the care of his maternal uncle.⁸

There are stories which attest to the inquisitiveness of the Bab’s mind in his childhood, as well as the exceeding rigor with which he carried out the religious obligations of Islam. We have exact historical dates for most of the significant events in the Bab’s life; these have been recorded, with remarkable precision, in his works such as the Persian Bayan, the Arabic Bayan, the Sahifih-yi Bayn al-Haramayn (written in response to Mirza Muhit Kirmani), the Qayyum al-asma, and others.

The Bab was five years old when, one day, his uncle enrolled him in a religious school headed by one of his friends. Shaykh ʻAbid. Mulla Fathullah, who was a schoolmate of the Bab’s and served as the class monitor, gives the following account:

When the Bab was brought to the school, we beheld a child with narrow limbs and a feeble body; he was dressed in a green tunic and a skullcap made of cashmere, walking hand in hand with his uncle. Arriving behind them was a male servant, bearing a plate on which were placed some sweets and a copy of the Qurʼan, which he presented to the instructor.⁹

Owing to his burgeoning mental development, his abundant talent, and superior mind—and because he was enrolled in a religious school that could not meet his intellectual needs—there was an air of dissatisfaction that attended the period of the Bab’s childhood education. His uncle had previously told the schoolmaster how unusual his nephew was:

He does not act or behave like other children; he prefers to seclude himself and immerse himself in thought. He shows no interest in playing or engaging in recreational activities as other children do. There are times when he makes truly astonishing statements.¹⁰

Shaykh ʻAbid, the instructor of the school, who would later embrace the cause of the Bab,¹¹

gives the following account:

As was customary on the first day of class, I asked the Bab to recite the opening verse of the Qurʼan: Bismi’llah al-rahman al-Rahim.¹²

This he did without any hesitation or error. I then asked him to memorize this verse: Huwa al-Fattah al-ʻAlim.¹³

The Bab said nothing, and when I asked him why he had remained silent, he responded, I do not know the meaning of ‘Huwa’ [‘He is’].¹⁴

There were several occasions when the Bab arrived late to school. One day, I sent one of the students to find him. When this student returned, he said, He is performing his obligatory prayers in a corner of his home.

On yet another occasion when the Bab had arrived late, I asked him, Where were you? he responded meekly, I was at the home of my Ancestor.¹⁵

Other anecdotes have been recorded which recount the Bab’s vigilant observance of Islamic prayer and worship—even in his childhood—and describe how he would be sunk in thought in the middle of a lively class. One such anecdote involves a certain day when all the students in the class were repeating a phrase at the instruction of their teacher—except for the Bab, who did not say a word and refused to cooperate. When one of the other students asked him why he had remained silent, he replied with a couplet from Hafiz: Hearest thou not the whistle’s call, this snare should now thy prison be.¹⁶

We do not know for certain whether the Bab ever expressed his disapproval of the traditional and outmoded style of instruction he was receiving, which occasionally involved corporal punishment and other forms of violence towards children, to his mother and uncle. Nabil Zarandi has related the following account from Shaykh ʻAbid:

I felt impelled to take [the Bab] back to his uncle and to deliver into his hands the Trust he had committed to my care. I determined to tell him how unworthy I felt to teach so remarkable a child. I found his uncle alone in his office. I have brought him back to you, I said, and commit him to your vigilant protection… It is incumbent upon you to surround him with your most loving care. Keep him in your house, for He, verily, stands in no need of teachers such as I. Haji Mirza Sayyid ‘Ali sternly rebuked the Bab. Have you forgotten my instructions? he said. Have I not already admonished you to follow the example of your fellow-pupils, to observe silence, and to listen attentively to every word spoken by your teacher?¹⁷

With this remonstrance from his uncle, the Bab returned to school—but the immensity of his spirit, the unusual measure of his insight, could not be restrained by the narrow confines of that place. At last, with the permission of his uncle, the Bab quit the school of Shaykh ʻAbid at the age of ten and began to work at his uncle’s mercantile business.¹⁸

Mirza Sayyid ʻAli did not give up hope that the Bab might resume his formal education. The Bab was fifteen (c. 1834) when Mirza Sayyid ʻAli took him to one of the well-known Shaykhi ʻulama, Mulla ʻAbdul-Khaliq Yazdi, to learn the fundamentals of Arabic grammar and the principles of Islamic jurisprudence. Mulla ʻAbdul-Khaliq Yazdi recounts the following in a conversation with Mulla ʻAbd al-Rahim-i-Qazvini:

I was a leader of prayer in Shiraz and held teaching lectures there. Once the uncle of this reverent man [i.e., the Bab] brought him to me saying that this is a soul who is adorned with piety and austerity, but lacks learning, and I beg you to pay him some attention. After I had admitted him, I left him in the custody of my younger son. A few days later, my son came back to me complaining that "the person you have left me has not accomplished any of the elementaries. He first must learn basic grammatical structure Amthila,¹⁹

and teaching Amthila is not suitable to my position. After that they sent him to Bushihr for the purpose of trade. Now I see such magnificent writings and unequalled verses as to make me astonished.²⁰

According to Amanat, there is nothing strange about the Bab’s distaste for the traditional style of instruction that prevailed in his day, or his aversion to the rigidity that characterized the religious schools of that era. To that effect, Amanat quotes the observations of an English merchant who was in Shiraz in 1850:

The usual studies in Persian colleges are the Persian and Arabic languages, the Koran and commentaries upon it, theology, law, moral philosophy, and logic. Of natural philosophy, geography, and general history, nothing is taught or known… The dry study of Arabic language is in general held more in estimation and repute than any other pursuit.²¹

He then adds:

The grammar of Arabic is complicated and difficult… Volumes have been written on philological trifles and subtleties, which are calculated to perplex and confuse, rather than to assist and enlighten the student.²²

The Bab’s lack of formal education, as well as the presence of grammatical irregularities in his writings, were used constantly by his enemies as a pretext to discredit him. These people would cite the occasionally unconventional style which the Bab employed in his Persian and Arabic writings as evidence of his poor grasp of both languages, which they used as a basis for rejecting his claim of having introduced a new religion. Yet, for the Bab’s followers, his limited education, his lofty revolutionizing ideals, and his firm, flowing style of Arabic and Persian writing all served as testament to the truth of his claim and the divinity of his knowledge. In his Sahifih-yi ‘Adliyyih, the Bab responds to those who objected to his language:

The fact that on some occasions words were altered or words uttered contrary to the rules of the people of doubt is because people would be able to make certain that the claimant of this position [himself] received these verses and this knowledge not by the way of learning, but because his heart is illuminated with the divine knowledge. [Therefore] he justifies these innovative alterations and what is contrary to rules, with the divine rules, as the same matter frequently occurred in the Book of God [the Qurʼan].²³

It is truly remarkable that the Bab was so straightforward about his lack of formal education, openly asserting that whatever he said or wrote were the products of divine inspiration. In his Tafsir-i Haʼ, addressed to a group of the ʻulama, the Bab writes:

I swear on my own soul that I did not read a word of the conventional sciences, and in the past there were no books of sciences with me whose words I have memorized, and there is no reason for this divine gift but God’s generosity and his benevolence. Today if someone asks me of various scholarly matters cited in books, I swear to God that I do not know the answer, and I do not even know the grammar and syntax, and I am proud of it, since God in the Day of Resurrection will prove to all that I was assisted by his generosity.²⁴

In contrast to his dislike for sciences that begin with words and end with words, the Bab, in his writings, praises the advances made by Westerners—whom he calls the people of Christ—in the applied sciences. In his Persian Bayan, he states explicitly that there are scholars of every discipline in other countries outside the domain of Shiʿi Islam.²⁵

In that work, he gives the example of the telescope, with which the Europeans have been able to study the position of our moon and other celestial bodies.²⁶

The Bab’s advocacy of the study of new sciences—as well as his support more generally for the other hallmarks of Western civilization, such as the establishment of a postal service, the printing of books, and so on—in a religious work rooted in spiritual beliefs demonstrates his aversion to pure religious legalism and his alignment with a kind of secularism that rejects the commending of absolutely everything to the Will of God in favor of a more practical approach that encourages the pursuit of knowledge, the making of discoveries, and the creation of new inventions, and even characterizes these as religious principles in and of themselves.²⁷

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The Bab Discontinues his Formal Education and Begins his Mercantile Work

During the time of the Bab, it was customary for the children of merchants in Persia to apprentice at their fathers’ shops and become acquainted with commerce. It is according to this tradition that the Bab, upon discontinuing his formal education, began to work at the shop of his uncle, Haji Mirza Sayyid ʻAli (Khal-i Aʻzam). Though little is known about the Bab’s life in Shiraz, we can infer from the historical context that his spiritual tendencies, including his engagement as a child in prolonged acts of worship—documented years later in attestations dating to when he lived in Bushihr—made up a significant part of his life at that time.

Five years later, the Bab set off for Bushihr, where—with an inheritance that had been bequeathed to him by his late father—he formed a commercial partnership with his uncle, Haji Mirza Muhammad (Khal-i Akbar).

The Bab’s commercial enterprise in Bushihr lasted five years (1835–40); he worked with his uncle for the first two years, but carried on with his own independent business for the remainder of that time.

The commercial network of the family was based in the south of Persia, extending from Bushihr, which was a thriving port city, to other such cities along the Persian Gulf, such as Bandar ʻAbbas, and ports along the Gulf of Oman and Bombay, Calcutta, and even Zanzibar and Java. In another direction, this network also extended to England, chiefly by way of India, with three centers of operations—in Shiraz, Yazd, and Bushihr.²⁸

On the basis of family documents, such as ledgers that describe the business transactions of the Afnans, Abu’l-Qasim Afnan provides a clear account of the Bab’s commercial enterprise. The Bab’s imports from India included sugar, tea, tin, indigo, and spices, as well as various kinds of calico used to make curtains, women’s clothing, and tablecloths. To this list of goods can also be added different types of cashmere and brocade, along with English wool and cotton textiles imported from India. The Bab exported rugs, dried rose petals, rosewater, foodstuffs, and dried fruits, such as shelled almonds and raisins, and at times he also traded gold coins. According to these historical documents, the Bab also had dealings in such cities as Yazd, Isfahan, Kashan, and Qazvin.²⁹

There were certain goods which the Bab did not trade. In none of the extant records is there any indication that he ever bought or sold weapons, liquor, or opium. He refrained even from dealing in such malodorous merchandise as asafoetida, for which there was a market in India, and also sheepskin, etc.³⁰

It must be recognized that commerce in those days was far from easy. There was always the danger that commercial goods brought into Persia by way of Bushihr with a caravan of mules would be stolen by highwaymen. Similarly, maritime commerce was faced with the constant threat of pirates, frightening storms, and the possibility that ships might sink.

Babi and Bahaʼi histories regard the Bab’s expansion of his commercial network into regions beyond the ones mentioned previously as an indication of his ability to successfully carry on an enterprise. According to these histories, one factor that contributed to the Bab’s commercial success was his maintenance of good relations with other merchants in southern and central Persia. The Nuqtat al-Kaf states:

The most prominent among the class of merchants were astonished by the Bab’s superior ability in matters of commerce, and found it very strange that so young a person could so effectively regulate the most vital of such affairs.³¹

That same text testifies to the Bab’s renown among the people of Bushihr for his good nature, his equanimity, his dignified bearing, his piety, his virtue, his work ethic, his generosity, his contentment, and his insight.³²

The Bab resided in Bushihr at a time when that city was undergoing political and social upheaval. To protect their Indian colony and to expand their influence throughout the regions of the Persian Gulf, and strengthen their commercial ties with India, the British Government established a residency in Bushihr toward the beginning of the nineteenth century. In May 1837, as Muhammad Shah was taking military measures to reassert Persian control over the city of Hirat, the British Government responded at once by sending a fleet of warships to the shores of Bushihr and occupying the island of Kharg. This development led the people of Bushihr to show great anger toward the British. As tensions between the two nations were rising, in March 1839, at the instigation of the leader of the Akhbari sect in that region, Shaykh Husayn Al-i Usfur—and with the support of the governor of the province of Fars, Asadu’llah Mirza—the residents of Bushihr launched an insurrection that attempted to prevent the British rear admiral and his troops from landing in the Bushihr Residency. Left with no other choice, the British evacuated Bushihr and retreated to the island of Kharg. Naturally, these incidents disrupted trade in Bushihr for a relatively long time. In an effort to restore normalcy, the merchants of the city attempted to mediate between the two nations, but to no avail. Eventually, the British Residency was re-established in Bushihr three years later. Beyond these developments, a period of global economic stagnation that lasted from 1838 to 1843 also yielded undesirable consequences for Persian commerce.³³

These circumstances notwithstanding, the Bab continued to carry on his enterprise in Bushihr, and with every passing day he became increasingly well-known for his piety, devoutness, truthfulness, and trustworthiness. The latter two virtues served as firm foundations for commerce in Persia, reflecting themselves clearly in the dealings of those large families in which the mercantile profession was passed down from generation to generation. Merchants in those days enjoyed a close relationship with the mosques and the ʻulama, and a great many of those who came from merchant families belonged to the clerical class. At this juncture, the commercial culture of Persia was intertwined not only with the values of truthfulness and trustworthiness, but also an atmosphere of religiosity. The Prophet of Islam was himself a merchant who bore the title of the Trusted One [Amin], so it was only natural that a descendant of his should have considered trustworthiness a religious obligation. The Farsnamah-yi Nasiri states that the maternal uncles of the Bab for generations…were engaged in trade and…known for their honesty.³⁴

With regard to the Bab specifically, Amanat writes:

On one occasion, Haji Mirza Abu’l-Hasan Yazdi, a merchant in Bushihr on his way to the pilgrimage of Hajj, entrusted the Bab with some merchandise to be sold during his absence. The price of the merchandise fell and it was sold at a price cheaper than was expected. However, on his return to Bushihr, Sayyid ʻAli-Muhammad (contrary to the general practice of the time, which only obliged him to pay back the value of the sold merchandise), included 175 tumans extra, the difference between the original value and the price fetched, insisting that failing to pay the original price was contrary to the code of trustworthiness.³⁵

The Nuqtat al-Kaf recounts a similar anecdote, but in this case attributes the loss which the Bab incurred to the characteristically meticulous attention he paid to prayer and other acts of worship:

So devoted was he to his religious observances that it is said he was once entrusted with some indigo that someone came to buy. This customer had come at a time when the Bab had intended to recite a certain religious text, and to this customer he said, Wait one hour; then I shall be available. At first, the man agreed to wait—but when the hour had passed and the Bab had become ready to receive his customer, he found that he had gone. In addition, the price of indigo had fallen in that time. The Bab sold it at a lower price, sustaining a loss of 70 tumans in the process—a sum he ultimately paid with his own funds to the person who had entrusted this merchandise to him as compensation.³⁶

Amanat writes:

This moralistic attitude [of the Bab] was not devoid of pragmatism, however. The Bab’s later instructions [in the Bayan] do not resonate the bookishness of madrasa jurists, nor do they lend themselves, at least as far as trade was concerned, to a puritanical enthusiasm.³⁷

He continues in that vein:

Contrary to the restricted regulations set up by the shariʻa, but in compliance with common practice, [the Bab] allows a lawful interest on the borrowed money as it is now practiced among the merchants, or allows agreement on the extension or delay of the repayment of exchange bills. He regards the mutual satisfaction of both parties as the essential condition for the lawfulness of any contract, whether they are under age, adults, slaves, or free men.³⁸

On the subject of foreigners, he emphasizes that only those Christian merchants who follow useful trades and professions are permitted to dwell in the countries of believers.³⁹

On another occasion, he refers to changes in the monetary system and acknowledges that depreciation of currency, both gold and silver, brings losses to the tujjar [merchants]. He hopes that in the future these fluctuations will settle.⁴⁰

He strictly forbids trade of opium, intoxicating drugs, and liquors for believers, but allows their use for medical purposes under certain conditions.⁴¹

Emphasizing the extent to which the Bab was known for his generosity, and also for the many consecutive hours he would spend absorbed in prayer and other acts of worship, the Nuqtat al-Kaf states:

[The people would say] he would spend all his capital; on one occasion, he gave 70 tumans to an indigent…those same people wrote to the Bab’s uncle to complain of his actions.⁴²

From this account, one can perhaps deduce why the Bab separated himself from commercial partnership with his uncles. Mu‘in al-Saltana ascribes this move on the Bab’s part to the existing necessities of the time.⁴³

Amanat writes:

For young Sayyid ʻAli-Muhammad engagement in trade served not only as a means of earning his livelihood, but more significantly as a way to emphasize moral standards he felt were declining, standards that were for him idealized in the words and deeds of the Prophet and Imams.⁴⁴

In a letter to one of his followers, who was himself a merchant, the Bab states that God ordained the mercantile profession for Muhammad and ʻAli-Muhammad [the Bab]. In this letter, the Bab implores God to bestow his blessings upon them that are fair in their dealings and love those who are inferior to them even as they love themselves. He states, moreover, that those who engage in commerce for the sake of God, and observe justice and fairness, will be safeguarded by God from every deceiving one.⁴⁵

Business that was done for the sake of God, upon which the Bab placed great emphasis, harks back to the Islamic concept of partnership with God, which in reality refers to the belief that God is present in commercial affairs. This constant awareness of the presence of God is intended to serve as the highest motive and greatest duty to observe justice and fairness, particularly toward the indigent and inferior. Included also in the Bab’s letter is his allusion to having a profession similar to that of the Prophet Muhammad. The significance of this allusion is appreciated by the author of the Nuqtat al-Kaf, himself a merchant, who considers the similarities between the lives of the Prophet Muhammad and the Bab in every respect—even their being orphans in childhood—as evidences of divine wisdom, inasmuch as the Bab’s engagement in trade

was designed to accomplish the proof to the people, so they would not be able to claim that he lacked the capacity of dealing with people. Thus the same mysterious considerations behind the engagement of his venerated ancestor [the Prophet] in trade, could also be applied to him. So, in every sense he could be a sign of that original light even in his orphanhood.⁴⁶

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Epiphany, Piety, and Intuition

Every work that has discussed the Bab’s life, irrespective of whether or not its author was a Bahaʼi, has, as we have seen, invariably highlighted the unbending vigilance with which the Bab spent hour after hour engaged in prayer, worship, and other acts of piety. Another point on which all these works agree are some of the Bab’s epiphanies, and also his ability to endure the rigors of an abstinent lifestyle. The uncle and guardian of the Bab, Haji Sayyid ʻAli, once said the following in a conversation with Shaykh ʻAbid, who taught at the school which the Bab attended:

From this nephew of mine, one sees such things as have never before been witnessed from any other child. Every day I hear from him a new word; at every moment I behold him in an unusual state. For instance, he will recount some of his strange and astonishing dreams, and it is most peculiar that a child of eight or nine should have such dreams.⁴⁷

Some of these dreams are recorded in books that discuss the Bab’s life. The following account comes from Haji Sayyid ʻAli, his uncle:

On a certain day, [the Bab] was sleeping beside me in the Murgh bathhouse when he awoke suddenly, saying, The roof covering the Mirza Hadi bathhouse has collapsed; one woman and three children have died. An uproar ensued in no time at all, with everyone asserting his own number of the fatalities, but eventually it became clear that the situation was exactly as the Bab had reported it.

On another occasion some time ago, he told me, "I had a dream in which I beheld a pair of scales, suspended in the air between earth and heaven. The Imam Jaʻfar Sadiq sat in one of the scales, which was touching the ground. An invisible hand took hold of me and placed me in the empty scale. At that moment, the scale in